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Mostly I think it's my role in shaping the community. I like going around and seeing little things that I had a hand in and seeing them work out well, even if it's little things like changing around boards and descriptions, or picking a mod who eventually becomes an s-mod, etc. I like that I have a real say in the overall direction of the site and that I can actively put into practice the ideas and visions that I've got for the community.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AWsquared

Do you always like messing around with PC's coding? (e.i. the Wario case)

Programming is one of my favorite hobbies, and making people smile always makes me happy too, so.. being able to combine the two is pretty cool. Pulling little pranks like that is fun, but I get a lot more enjoyment out of little things that most people don't notice. Tweaks to the interface or features that make things work a whole lot better but aren't so huge that everyone sees immediately, or might even notice unless they saw an un-modified vBulletin forum.

I was actually looking around on another popular Pokemon forum that has vBulletin and realizing just how much we've changed here on PC. It was fun looking at everything and realizing just how different it would be here if I hadn't become an admin. :P

Quote:

Originally Posted by AWsquared

What would you say is your best quality?

A year ago I probably would've said my empathy/kindness/love for people. I prided myself on how much I cared and how much I was willing to do to help anyone and everyone. Stay up late writing papers for friends, lend people money that I knew I couldn't afford/wouldn't get back (or buying gifts for people), spend time doing things I didn't like doing because it made them happy, etc.

Eventually it got to a point where it was a reversal, a sort of switch where I realized that far from being altruistic, my actions had started to become very selfish. I started to make decisions based upon how I would be perceived--I liked that everyone would say stuff like "Shawn has such a big heart, he does so much for his friends" and and whatnot. It was a big wakeup call that lead to a bit of a mini-crisis of identity, which leads me to...

...my best quality now is probably my keen sense of self. I've grown so much and become so aware and in-tune with who I am and my place in life and it's absolutely the best feeling. I've found a balance where I can be happy doing things for people and not feel guilty and selfish and realize that taking care of myself is important too. I'm never at a loss morally or internally, or when making decisions, or anything like that because I'm so sure of who I am/what I want/where I want to go/just... myself. It's like being able to completely understand yourself. No second-guessing.

ramblerambleramble. Is that even a quality? XD;

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razor Leaf

What would you say are your flaws as an admin?

I've gotten a LOT better this year but some of my actions in the past were just awful. Sometimes I'll go back and read old threads in the staff forums and just cringe and think "what was I thinking??" Everything from my modding/promotion decisions to the way I responded to certain staff members to doing things without approval from the other admins, etc.

But presently, I wish I felt more inclined to spend time on the regular parts of the board. Talk to random members and make friends like I used to. I'm a pretty firm believer that any staff, especially h-staff and most especially an admin's biggest job is being present on the community and setting an example for the members to follow.

There's an underlying desire for this inside of me, but there are so many other things in the world (not just the Internet, though that's a big part of it) that I want to spend my time on and I just can't bring myself to post in CCP about my breakfast when I could be reading Jean-Paul Sartre instead. :(

I do make time every now and then, though. 8) Or at least I try to.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razor Leaf

What was your most memorable time on PC?

Two time periods.

The first few months of my modding, specially November/December of 2007. It was around Christmas time, which is my favorite time of year already for the festive feelings and the weather. The forums had this retro-looking Wooper-based Christmas theme and overall I just loved being around. I got modded in OVP and at the time, nothing was more fun to me than spending all day on PC and posting around. Nothing even in specific, I guess.. just some cool nostalgic feels about that time. :]

The second, though I can't really place it on a timeline (I'm pretty sure it was before I got promoted to assistant admin.. I think probably during the last half of my time as a moderator and the first half as a super-moderator), there was a period where I started getting close to a now mostly-gone group of friends that called themselves 9" Pizza. It included faces you all would recognize still (Lightning, Morkula, parallelzero, Arcanine, Aegis, Hiroshi Sotomura, and a few others) today. We had daily MSN group chats that lasted for hours and hours, the most obnoxious and silly conversations. I remember laughing SO HARD during those chats that my family would be like "... are you alright?" and want to know what on earth I could be cracking up so hard about.

Those chats stopped a long time ago and to some extent we all grew apart, with a few exceptions. Aegis and Lightning live together now, Hiroshi Sotomura and Morkula are obviously still a staff admins with me, Arcanine/parallelzero too until recently. Erica's still one of my favorite people from PC and those memories of 9" Pizza are some of my favorite from the Internet.

My main job is to be an explorer of life and everything it has to offer. 8)

But in a more traditional sense, I earn money by working in a bookstore. It's pretty chill. I love books and I love that my job is to share the thoughts of others and the adventures they dream up with people. It's like working at wikipedia except with less editing and way more cleanup, haha.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razor Leaf

What are some things on your bucket list?

Oh my god. Let me come back to this one when it isn't 1:30am haha.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razor Leaf

What was your most memorable offline experience?

The first time I took acid! (I'm not condoning drugs, kids.)

You know, I was actually thinking about this not too long ago and I realized that the past is right where it belongs--not here. I would have to think long and hard to come up with an answer and even then, it wouldn't be true to who I am. I live very much in the present and while I've got a lot of fond memories spread over a long period of time, I think it would sell short others to put one above all else.

I'll think about it though and maybe get back to you. :]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razor Leaf

What do you think makes a good staff member?

Absolutely, unequivocally, absolutely is understanding where a member is coming from. I hate when I see posts from staff members who are just going through the motions--I see it most in the CQ&F board. Your whole job as a staff member is to be supportive to the members and so many people lose sight of that. They give short answers or answers that aren't helpful, they're sometimes too abrupt (sometimes even rude) and just give off a horrible vibe. If I were a member a lot of the stuff I see would leave a bad taste in my mouth.

That said, I don't want to badmouth any of our mods because in general I think they're great people, I just wish they'd been trained a little bit better. I think it should be standard practice to go above and beyond to be helpful to someone. Instead of just locking a thread in CQ&F asking, like, "where do I download _____ hack?" and telling them "yeah go find it in the ROM Hacking boards, CQ&F is only for PokeCommunity stuff," I would love to see someone go and actually find the download link and post it for the person. Or instead of handing out an infraction or a warning when someone breaks the rules, I'd love to see mods sending messages to the members and explaining the rules to them first.

I know I have more examples but I'm really tired and my brain is taking a poop on me for staying up late with no sleep. haha. I think my bottom line is this--put yourself in their shoes. They don't need a perfunctory little post about breaking rules, they need to understand how/why, where to go from there, how to improve and so-forth. In the vast majority of cases people aren't trying to break rules, or post in the wrong spot, or whatever. It's just an honest mistake.

I would be happy if more staff members would bring themselves down to the level of the members and understand that being on staff is closer to the service side of the scale than the privilege side.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razor Leaf

How am I doing as a smod? (been meaning to ask several people this anyway. Might be worth PMing idk. d:)

We can talk on Skype about it if you want. 8)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razor Leaf

Why don't I know you better?

Probably because I don't talk to many people on PC closely anymore. :( I haven't gotten as close to a PC member as I was with 9" in ages, but it isn't the fault of anyone except for me. My priorities and focus have shifted away from the Internet in general and the amount of time that I can put in just doesn't allow for me to sit on a messenger client and talk for hours like I used to.

That said, I love making new friends and I'm absolutely down to just talk about whatever pretty much whenever. My Facebook is posted in the staff forum and you're welcome to add me there, and I'm totally down for long-winded ponderings about existence via PM if you don't mind me taking a little while to reply at times.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razor Leaf

If you were able to magically change anything at all about PC, what would it be? As many things as you like.

I would completely redo the staff structure. As well as our team works, I would like to see more diversity in the upper ranks and a more freely flowing promotion chain. Maybe something with rotating shifts "in office," so to speak. Different teams with specific focuses lead by team leaders who aren't all just "well we're the h-staff... we're in charge of everything, duh!"

As far as rules goes, I hate hate hate hate hate hate how uptight we are about being "on topic" or how so many things are considered "spam." So many threads are locked and posts deleted that aren't hurting anything, but some people seem to thirst for the leadership aspect and will jump at any chance to perform a mod action. Instead, I would love to see all staff look at a thread and think "is this hurting? could it be fun? will people enjoy it?" and if the answers are no-yes-yes or even maybe-maybe-maybe, give it a chance and see where it goes. PC was the most active ever when the rules were more lax and it wasn't a crime to have fun. So yeah. I would change the rules so that not everything has to be on topic and that straying is fine.

Also, it isn't exactly "magically," but I'm working something really really huge for PC that is almost changing... everything. 8) It'll be a few months though, and it's not staff related.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shining Raichu

If I buy you a plane ticket will you come to Australia and date me? I'll treat you real nice.

I don't think I could ever live in Australia, Andrew. :( It's just not my vibe, man. But if you come to California I may consider it. 8)

A year ago I probably would've said my empathy/kindness/love for people. I prided myself on how much I cared and how much I was willing to do to help anyone and everyone. Stay up late writing papers for friends, lend people money that I knew I couldn't afford/wouldn't get back (or buying gifts for people), spend time doing things I didn't like doing because it made them happy, etc.

Eventually it got to a point where it was a reversal, a sort of switch where I realized that far from being altruistic, my actions had started to become very selfish. I started to make decisions based upon how I would be perceived--I liked that everyone would say stuff like "Shawn has such a big heart, he does so much for his friends" and and whatnot. It was a big wakeup call that lead to a bit of a mini-crisis of identity, which leads me to...

...my best quality now is probably my keen sense of self. I've grown so much and become so aware and in-tune with who I am and my place in life and it's absolutely the best feeling. I've found a balance where I can be happy doing things for people and not feel guilty and selfish and realize that taking care of myself is in my honest opinionrtant too. I'm never at a loss morally or internally, or when making decisions, or anything like that because I'm so sure of who I am/what I want/where I want to go/just... myself. It's like being able to completely understand yourself. No second-guessing.

This is really, really interesting and something I think I could learn from. I'm gonna ask some more questions if that's alright. Why did you do so much for others? Why do you think the realisation that your action were selfish occurred? I don't think I fully understand why you think that your previous actions were selfish; can you explain that a bit more? How did your friends react when you decided to stop doing so much for them? How did you go about finding yourself a bit more? How long did it take? Feel free to roll these all into one or whatever!

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